Sticking Together
by Mia M. Turner
Summary: A little oneshot detailing Lock, Shock, and Barrel's feelings about being stuck serving Oogie for the rest of their afterlives.


A/N: I can't believe I haven't updated "Someone Different" since January. UBER sorry to my reviewers and readers; I'm working on it as we speak, and I promise to be quicker about that. Until then, I'm onto my first Lock, Shock, and Barrel story! There are lots of theories on these three, and I wanted to give my own theories a shot. So here ya go! Story is all in Shock's POV. Ah yes, and before I get millions of agonizing questions about this, yes, Lock is the oldest in this fic; no one is 100 sure of their ages, but Lock always struck me as the oldest somehow… wow, that was a long author's note… I'll let ya get to the story now. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Someday I'll shake hands with Tim Burton, sign a contract with him, and carve my initials on the back wall of his house… and I STILL won't own NMBC, so suing me won't do too much for ya… All dates and ages are not cited from anything affiliated with NMBC or Tim Burton; they are theories as well.

July 9th… there was something I was supposed to remember about that date. For the LIFE of me, I couldn't figure it out. But there had to be _something_. I sat up straight on the couch and glanced across the room. I could barely make out Barrel and Lock through the darkness, only to find they were still asleep. Some help they were.

By the look of things and the usual morning stillness, it was probably almost three in the morning—only an hour until we had to get up, and I hadn't closed my eyes the entire night. I decided not to try to get in even that last hour of sleep for fear of waking up a few minutes too late and receiving a whack across the head. So to make use of the time I had left, I continued to try and remember what that date was supposed to mean.

It had something to do with the human world. That was all I could remember. And that wouldn't do me any good, because I could hardly remember anything before living in HalloweenTown. But it was worth a shot… let's see, what did we used to do when we were alive that we didn't do anymore…?

I thought for a second. The first thing that came to mind was how Mom would always make chocolate chip cookies on Saturday mornings. If there was one thing I'd always remember about being alive, it was waking up to hearing Mom downstairs, working hard just for us.

Aaaand, already I'd gotten off subject. Every solution to that date I could think of would remind me of Mom and Dad, so I finally gave up. A few minutes after I did, Lock sat up. Like most mornings, we pretty much stayed quiet for a while. No 'good morning's, no eye contact, no nothing. Though all we had left in the world was each other, you just never knew if Oogie was watching or not, and nothing would get us hit harder than being nice to each other. I did, however, glance over at some point, and noticed Lock looked a little more annoyed than usual.

"Hey…" I whispered as quietly as I could. Though it still startled both of us because of the prolonged silence. "Are you okay?"

No answer.

"B-Because I know we're not really 'morning people', but you seem a little more upset than usual…"

He finally glanced over and paused for a second before answering.

"I'm gonna be 10 today, y'know." he answered shortly. Oh crap THAT'S what I forgot. July 9th was my big brother's birthday, and I'd almost forgotten it. I was starting to feel like a lousy little sister when I'd realized that if today was Lock's birthday, then I had totally missed my 8th birthday by at least four months. Which made me wonder if we'd missed Barrel's… what was it… sometime in December…? Which meant he had to be at least four by now… or maybe it was five? We didn't really have anything to base it on. We were never sent to school, and most of the time we just didn't care what day it was, because they all ended up being the same. Still… I wanted to do something nice for him.

"… Tell ya what Lock, I'll let you take the couch tonight so that you have more room. I don't mind taking the floor."

He kept staring forward. "It's your turn tonight, though."

"I don't mind." I answered. "I'll just set up a pillow and blanket and I'll be fine."

Another pause…

"You'd better not let Oogie hear you being nice." He answered stiffly.

"I know." I continued. "But you're worth it." Lock finally turned his head and gave the first, actual truthful smile I'd seen him make in weeks. He quickly straightened his face and looked back at the wall again after that.

"Thanks sis."

There was another pause after that. The only noise from then on was Barrel breathing softly on top of my stomach. For once, however, Lock was the first one to speak up

"…Hey Shock?"

I jumped a little before answering. "What's up?"

"…Do you think Mom and Dad are looking for us?" he asked.

…Actually, I didn't know how to answer that. Or why he wanted to know for that matter. I mean, even if they were looking for us, they'd never in a million years find HalloweenTown. So that was the end of it. For the next 5,000 years of our lifespan, my siblings and I would be stuck here, wishing every day that we could just die all over again and be done with it. That didn't seem like an encouraging answer though, so I told him what I wanted to believe.

"Yea. I'll bet they are." I spoke up. "I don't know if they'll ever find us… but I think they're looking, anyway." That's when he asked another question that really got me thinking.

"So… why hasn't Jack taken us away from Oogie yet?"

Now that, I _really_ didn't know how to answer.

"Come to think of it, why hasn't _any_one said anything? I'm sure Jack knows we're here. I'm pretty sure the mayor knows we're here. I'm CERTAIN Sally knows we're here. So why is everyone keeping quiet about it?" He had me there…

"…Because _we're _being quiet about it." I finally managed. "They probably think we're doing fine here. Not much we can do to fix that. If we told anyone, Oogie would have a field day."

"Yea." Lock continued. "He would…" I looked at the floor for a second, gently pushed Barrel off my lap, and walked over to the other side of the room to sit down next to Lock.

"Hey… remember when we said a few months ago that we'd get out of here someday?" I asked quietly.

"Mom and Dad aren't coming to get us." Lock answered right away, "We don't have a chance."

"Well, I'm still gonna keep that promise. I don't know exactly how we're going to pull it off… but we just have to be patient."

"Whatever you say, Shock." he grumbled. I was about to answer him when the light downstairs went on. I shuddered quietly and walked to the other side of the room to wake Barrel up.

"…But—" Lock began. "I also promised Mom and Dad that as the older sibling, I'd always watch out for you two… so I guess I'm kind of screwed into believing you." He gave a small, barely noticeable smile.

"…Thanks Lock." I answered, picking up Barrel and walking downstairs. Something told me it was going to be a looooong day, but as long as I had my brothers with me, I was pretty sure things were going to be alright.

A/N: Wow, that took me 6 minutes to read, yet 4 hours to write… Well, as always, I'm super-nervous about letting go of this story, as I am with all my fictions, but I'm pretty confidant this one will do alright. Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated, as I'm always looking for way to improve my writing style.


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